Rip-off credit card fees continue, despite Government ban

Shoppers are still getting ripped off when using their cards to buy things online, despite a Government ban on excessive fees.

Many companies are still charging excessive fees when customers pay for things using a credit or debit card.

The worst offenders are in the travel market, and despite a high-profile campaign by Which? to end this practice, the group says it still exists.

These companies are also going against a Government ban, bought in earlier in the year, which made charging customers more than the administration costs of a transaction illegal.

Rip-off fees

Online travel company eDreams is charging the highest amount, in some cases up to 18% for customers paying by card. Its charges are also inconsistent; in one instance a fee of 18% was added on when paying with the prepaid card Visa Entropay, yet there were charges of 18.25% for using a Visa debit card and 18.86% for using a MasterCard debit or credit card.

Other culprits include easyBus, Vueling, Monarch, Jet2 and Germanwings, which are charging between 2.5% and 3.5% per transaction as you can see from the table below.

First Choice, Thompson, easyJet and Mytrainticket were also highlighted in the report.

The ban introduced this year allows companies to charge for the costs of payment but no more. Which? says it thinks this should be no more than 2% for credit cards and a few pence for debit cards.

Which? contacted the companies named, to ask them to reduce these surcharges. First Choice and Thomson, which are both part of Tui Travel, lowered their fees to from 2.5% to 2% for credit cards on 1st October.

Reductions were also made at easyJet from 2.5% to 2%, and at Mytrainticket, from 2.95% to 2%. A flat rate of 99p per debit card and £2.99 for credit cards was being charged by easyCar, but these have both now been abolished.

Any company still over-charging for these fees will be referred by Which? to Trading Standards.

Which? campaign

The consumer group led a wide-scale campaign earlier in the year which received more than 50,000 signatures.

In response the Government introduced a ban on these excessive charges. However, firms with 10 employees or less are exempt until June 2014.

If you think a company is charging too much you can report them to Which via its website or go straight to Trading Standards yourself who will investigate it for you.

Spread the cost of your purchases for up to 18 months interest free – compare 0% purchase credit cards here

More from lovemoney.com:

The new cars least likely to pass their first MOT

How to slash your supermarket delivery costs

Midweek Moneysavers

Seven reasons mortgage lenders turn you down

Sarah Beeny's Tepilo to become online estate agent